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Why Some Schools Are Selling All Their iPads

167 points by jmduke 12y ago

EinLama 12y ago
55 trackers according to ghostery. What the hell is wrong with theatlantic.com?
taigeair 12y ago
Yeah I think a laptop is much more useful. I still don't have a tablet. The biggest use of a tablet I can see is watching videos.
- WalterBright 12y ago
  I use a tablet for reading books. They're much better than a laptop for that.
  - allegory 12y ago
    I disagree. They're easier to annotate on a computer. Then again I still use hard copies when they're not extortionately priced and postits for markup.
    - WalterBright 12y ago
      Fair enough, though I pretty much never annotate books. Taking notes on a computer has never worked for me, either. I take notes on paper, then later scan them in. When I help someone with a math/electronics/physics problem, I also use a yellow pad & pen. I cannot see any advantage to using a computer. For writing significant text, though, it's a computer all the way.
      - allegory 12y ago
        I do the same actually. Can't beat a pencil and cheap HP AIO printer/scanner. I tend to annotate errors in books more than anything - it seems recently that publishers have lost the ability to review books...
    - mercer 12y ago
      I agree with the both of you! I prefer reading on my iPad, but I was often annoyed at how annotations were either stuck on the thing, or harder to make. GoodReader (iOS) is decent for making and syncing pdf annotations. It's still not as easy as a laptop, but sometimes the benefit of reading on an iPad is worth it for me. For epub files, however , I almost always exclusively use my iPad. There's an app called Marvin that allows you to instantly select (or select + highlight) a sentence, and grow the selection with one tap. I find that almost more convenient than my laptop. It also syncs with Calibre, although that can take a bit of work to set up properly.
- gcp 12y ago
  It's ok for reading websites on the couch. Less cumbersome than a laptop. Also for reading books. They're devices for consuming content, not creating it.
ekianjo 12y ago
Too bad the article does not really go in the insights as to why the IPads are being replaced by something else. It's just being hinted, but that's the main point they should have focused on the article.
- blinkingled 12y ago
  The article mentioned several reasons - price, ease of pushing apps, ease of using new one if current one breaks, keyboards, being perceived as more work device than the iPad (less distracting and general perception of the iPad as a gaming/entertainment device).
  - ekianjo 12y ago
    Yeah, I know, but still I felt this was very light. I'd like to hear more about what kind of things they do differently with a Chromebook vs an iPad, how kids react to a more PC-like device vs a tablet (not just perception, but usage impressions and perceived benefits), how educators use both devices, etc... I was expecting a bit more.
    - blinkingled 12y ago
      Maybe for your use these are light reasons but for public schools these are pretty sound reasons. Cost, manageability and keyboards specifically are enough to make a decision.
- mattmcknight 12y ago
  It sounds like the key points are: -lack of keyboard -perceived as more of a game device than a work device -inferior cloud capabilities to a Chromebook (harder to issue replacement device) -harder to use with some educational web applications -cost I never really understood the "tablets for schools" thing. Laptops are better on a desk than on a lap, whereas you might prefer a tablet when you don't have a desk: on the bus, on the couch, in bed... Maybe we just need more laptops with touchscreens.
  - 12y ago
sheetjs 12y ago
> since the new Common Core online testing will require a keyboard. Is common core testing available on paper, or is it only computerized?
- aefeuer 12y ago
  For the first 1-3 years, I believe, states/districts will have the option of paying extra for paper versions of the test. That's only a transitional option, though, and paper will be deprecated in favor of the online test. (One exception -- paper tests will be available indefinitely for students with special needs who can't take the test online.) One of the big problems with online tests that we're seeing in some of our school districts is that many students don't have great typing or computer skills. Even though most students can probably type well enough to complete the tests, the extra mental challenge of typing is likely to artificially lower scores. So a test that purports to measure math skills might actually be measuring a combination of math skills + computer skills, and a school that's worked really hard to teach math might get docked because students haven't had a lot of computer experience. This doesn't necessarily mean that online testing is a bad idea, but just one of the many things that we need to take into account.
  - ericcumbee 12y ago
    I'm all for more computer based assessments. But the idea of taking a math test on a computer sounds horrible. I remember MyMathLab in college. you could have the right answer, but if you did not enter it in the precise way that it wanted, then it was wrong.
    - learc83 12y ago
      MyMathLab was horrible. I spent as much time getting used to the clunky interface, the first few weeks as, I did learning math.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
    - ivan_ah 12y ago
ksec 12y ago
Is Chromebook that much cheaper? Why is it hard to replace an iPad compared to Chromebook? To me, a lot of these issues have to do with software rather then hardware.
- soperj 12y ago
  It is that much cheaper. Because it's easier to get everything off an old chromebook and onto a newer one.
- jay_kyburz 12y ago
  Actualy. I think it is about the keyboard.
- adventured 12y ago
  The iPad Air 32gb is $599. The Acer C720 Chromebook, 32gb, 11.6" screen, is $229 (and very well reviewed on Amazon). Acer charges $50 to double your storage, Apple charges $100. The next generation of Chromebooks are likely to commonly be at or near 14" screens at $300 or under.
- Mikeb85 12y ago
  If you use Google Drive, you can have your whole life, all your files, pictures, etc.... accessible with a simple login across all your devices. Google's Cloud services are second to none, iCloud doesn't compare. Since Chromebooks encourage you to work entirely in the cloud, you can have access to all your school work by simply logging in to Drive...
cpncrunch 12y ago
Chromebooks are just much more useful than ipads in so many ways. I've recently finished getting our html5 web conferencing app working smoothly on chromebooks because pretty much all our educational customers are moving from laptops to chromebooks right now. I was skeptical about chromebooks, but having owned one myself for the past few months I can now see the benefits, and I would recommend them over Windows laptops to anyone who is not a developer. For all intents and purposes chromebooks are essentially virus-proof and screwup-proof. (I'm sure you could get a virus or screw it up, but you would have to try damn hard!)
- lchengify 12y ago
  Mind if I ask which model? I had a chromebook 3 years ago and found it too slow to do anything beyond basic usage, and especially not software development. I have however heard good things about the Pixel.
  - allegory 12y ago
    This appears to be the older ARM ones. The newer Intel ones are pretty nippy even with the Celeron badge.
  - cpncrunch 12y ago
    Mine is an Acer C720 (I got that because it's what most of the schools were using). It's fast enough for anything I've used it for (web browsing, web conferencing + ssh client). Takes literally 6 seconds to boot up (or 1 second to wake from sleep). It seems a lot less sluggish than my 2-year old MacBook Pro - I think the SSD helps a lot.
- vacri 12y ago
  As a gamer, I don't want to have to download gigabytes of stuff from the cloud every time I want to play a AAA title.
  - Crito 12y ago
    You won't be playing AAA games on chromebooks anyway...
capkutay 12y ago
Apple probably knows and they probably don't think it's that significant for them. They didn't hire the CEO of Burberry and st Laurent to sell digital notebooks to grade schools
- adamnemecek 12y ago
  At the same time isn't that kind of how Apple created their customer base originally with Apple II? Then, once the kids grew up, they would still buy Apple products.
- RowanH 12y ago
  .. but you get young minds entrenched in your ecosystem and you've got a head start. Fast forward a number of years with all of your school work online, maybe a 'school' email account/drive and profile linked with your 'personal' gmail account and drive - it's seamless to transition between the two etc. Now company x comes along and wants you to move ecosystems, it's going to be a lot harder. I for one couldn't even contemplate changing from the gmail/drive ecosystem now. Get a new phone, put in your creds, boom - all there. The hardware is irrelevant at that point.
- DigitalSea 12y ago
  Apple is a marketing company at the end of the day. They got to where they are now through great marketing and great products. I don't doubt for one second targeting school students in their most influential years isn't on Apple's marketing priority list. People tend to stick with what they know and if they're using iPad's for the duration of their schooling years from primary to high school and then college, that's a long time to build a following and I would guess most people who grow up using Windows stick with Windows later on in life and those who use Apple products stick to using Apple in their later years in life.
jordanthoms 12y ago
My startup makes PDF annotation software for chrome & chromebooks ( http://www.notablepdf.com http://www.notablepdf.com ) and we've been getting a huge amount of interest from schools deploying large numbers of chromebooks. Dell even stopped selling their chromebook to individual purchasers since they are struggling to keep up with demand from the education sector [1] It's a very interesting space at the moment especially with Google Classroom on the way. [1] - http://www.pcworld.com/article/2453800/dell-halts-chromebook-online-sales-cites-rising-demand.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/2453800/dell-halts-chromebook...
bgroins 12y ago
I'm seeing this change in the workplace as well. I work in a large IT shop and have about 15-20 meetings a week with different departments. Until the past 6 months, everyone was sporting iPads with some sort of bluetooth keyboard case. Now it's ultrabooks or Airs. I used to carry a tablet/keyboard combo as well, but over time the ultrabook became more appealing because of several factors, namely, the keyboard, screen size, and Office suite. Battery life and portability are also now acceptable for all day mobile use on the ultrabook. I don't think there will ever be a tablet compelling enough to switch back. Even the Surface (to me) has too many compromises over a lightweight ultrabook with a usable keyboard.
- swalsh 12y ago
  Its because workplaces/schools are centered around producing, and tablets have a terrible user experience for producing. They're fine for consuming, but that's not what people do most of the time in offices/schools.
robotcookies 12y ago
You need a keyboard to do any serious writing. Students should write and they should never have gotten iPads in the first place. What are these teachers thinking?
- youngtaff 12y ago
  I wrote the first couple thousand words of a book on an iPad last summer and even using an external keyboard it as painful - you have to keep touching the screen to do things, which is a long stretch compared to using a trackpad or mouse
  - coldpie 12y ago
    Which is why I laugh when people waste time or money on alternate input methods that involve more than wiggling my fingers very slightly. No one wants to use a Minority Report style interface for more than three seconds. There's a reason input methods (mouse and pushing discrete things on a flat surface) haven't really changed in nearly fifty years, even with the advent of computers-in-your-pocket.
- blahedo 12y ago
  A lot of people claim that the on-screen "keyboard" is a keyboard, so it's plausible that some people bought into that. Lack of keyboard is a non-starter for me for any serious device, but I lost count of the number of people that told me I would be able to touch-type on the iPad's "keyboard". (This should be obviously false, but in case it isn't, I'll point out that the apostrophe---which I've used five times so far in this post---isn't (6!) even on the main keyboard, and if you "touch-type" an apostrophe, you hit the enter key. Emergency backup keyboard maybe, but this is not usable as a touch-typing device.)
  - manicdee 12y ago
    The apostrophe is inserted automatically by most spelling engines (even if they get it wrong some of the time). If not automatically added, you can put the apostrophes in pretty easily when you go back to review what you wrote (because you read what you wrote before you hit post, right?) A keyboard is an obstruction when you just want to read, paint, or do non-text-entry work (and even for some text-entry work like dictation). I found the best of both worlds was a Logitech "Ultrathin Bluetooth Keyboard": it attached to the iPad magnetically like a Smart Cover and provided a keyboard and stand when you needed it. Ultrabooks don't work so well in portrait orientation. It's hard to type on them when they're sideways. On the other hand, my iPad + bluetooth keyboard weighed more (and was thicker than) than my 11" MacBook Air. Ultrabooks are also harder to read on, since vertical space is at a premium. I prefer tall narrow pages, rather than short wide pages. The main orientation on an Ultrabook is "short, narrow" pages (a format that photographers love, but there's no talking sense to photographers and their fascination for "square" pictures).
bennettfeely 12y ago
My high school spent thousands of dollars on 30-40 iPads which we "used" primarily in Spanish class in my senior year. Overall an enormous waste of money and time not limited to problems connecting to the spotty Wi-Fi. Our teacher was not aware of any good apps that she could tie into lessons so the iPads were used primarily as a web browser for a crappy textbook website. Virtually nothing was accomplished for a semester with the iPads. The IT director at my school was right when he referred to the devices that were supposed to be a revolution in education as "toys".
- tjl 12y ago
  It sounds like your IT director didn't support the teachers use of the iPads well (or the WiFi for that matter). Reading Fraser Speirs' blog (http://www.speirs.org http://www.speirs.org) about how he did a 1:1 program for his school (he was the computer teacher and IT professional there), it's clear that you can't just hand the iPads out and that's it.
- manicdee 12y ago
  The IT director's prophecy is self-fulfilling. If you don't put some effort and funding into application selection, you're going to have teachers using the iPads and ChromeBooks to teach kids lessons from free & crappy web sites that have no idea how to present lessons in a clear, concise manner with correct spelling and grammar. If the person responsible for a particular technology isn't going to spend time supporting colleagues using that technology, they're basically abandoning the technology. There are a multitude of language training resources on the App Store alone. I'm sure that someone in the US education system has done a review of various course material available through the App Store and Apple University (plus all the online courses) and determined which ones are best in particular brackets of student age, course price, etc. That a teacher was resorting to crappy web sites rather than the best available resources indicates that there were problems outside the technology environment: I'm thinking either management support or financial.
- smackfu 12y ago
  If someone gives you a tool and no support on how to use it, do you blame the tool or the person who gave it to you?
Synergyse 12y ago
Our business is built around a Chrome Extension that provides interactive Google Apps Training. At Synergyse we have seen massive adoption of Chromebooks in the education market, which represents a majority of our valued clients. In fact we have grown the business to over 1 million subscribers in 1 year. https://medium.com/@majidmanzarpour/how-we-grew-our-b2b-startup-to-1-million-subscribers-in-1-year-f55b4b4cdcf6 https://medium.com/@majidmanzarpour/how-we-grew-our-b2b-star...
DigitalSea 12y ago
I have witnessed this taking place in the enterprise sector as well. Without naming names, I've seen one large company here in Australia in particular move away from using iPad's to laptops because iPad's are too limited in what you can do, they don't offer the freedom of choice when it comes to different software options and date very quickly. From a cost point-of-view, you can buy a decent laptop for the same price as an iPad which will last for years. I believe Apple's closed-source nature of pigeon-holing you into using applications only on their tightly controlled moderated app store is actually coming back to bite them. The fear of knowing eventually your iPad will no longer be able to use the latest and greatest version of iOS forcing you to buy a new iPad to install the latest applications developed for later iOS versions your iPad doesn't support meaning more money is also another factor that works against Apple. Don't get me wrong, the iPad is a pretty great device for simplistic Internet browsing, checking your email and updating your social media, but if you want to do anything serious with it, the iPad shows its shortcomings.
- tsunamifury 12y ago
  $399 laptops rarely last more than a year and are rarely robust enough for any type of work. I could make practically all the same criticisms about a $399 laptop as an iPad. That being said, I don't know who would replace an laptop with an iPad in any sort of robust, non-mobile workflow, so I'm inclined to call BS on your statement.
  - rythie 12y ago
    Traditionally laptops have had far too many moving parts to be durable: - 1 or 2 fans - Keyboard - display hinge - Hard disk - CD Drive - often various flaps or expansion area Whilst laptops are improving in this area, iPad have not had any of those from the beginning - it clearly makes for much more durable device. Additonally almost all laptops are high maintenance software wise with the possible exception of chromebooks.
- Spooky23 12y ago
  I do enterprise architecture focused on client delivery for a living. The problem isn't the iPad, it's the enterprise. "iPad for all of the things" isn't a successful strategy. iPad isn't optimal any more than 4" thick corporate laptops were. IT is used to hammer/nail solutions, End User Computing groups in enterprises tend to be focused on routine. Hell, many still call themselves "the desktop team", although that era is fading into the sunset. Along with the desktop sunset is the "desktops for the drones, bricks for the mobile drones, thin laptops for the execs" model. An iPad is: - A companion device for executives or others who travel throughout the office all day. - A primary device for users whose computing needs are task oriented. The executive use case is web access, document access, IM/chat, email. Think big blackberry with document reading capability. Biggest "transformational" use cases that drive satisfaction are making things like approval processes easy. The typical corporate VP VPNs in after dinner to approve stupid things in some system or via email. iPad lets them do that during conference calls instead of playing brick-breaker on a BlackBerry. For task oriented workers, you can buy or write apps very easily that let folks get work done. Example: Salesmen & Auditors need to share/present information with clients. iPad with file sync tool makes that easy, with better customer engagement. Example: Field force needs to conduct inspections or complete checklists for reporting purposes. iPad makes it trivial to deliver forms, case notes, etc -- complete with geocoding and photo evidence. I've worked with industrial equipment vendors who deliver service documentation and procedures to customer engineers via iPad apps -- it avoids the need to deliver hundreds of pounds of binders via Fedex. Apple Marketing example for pilots: http://www.apple.com/ipad/business/profiles/united-airlines/ http://www.apple.com/ipad/business/profiles/united-airlines/ For both groups, the iPad offers a much better user experience vs. a corporate laptop. It just works. When they break, you overnight a new one to the employee, and MDM delivers replacement apps/data based on user ID automatically. All of the above is true for Android tablets as well in some cases. But in regulated industries where you have lots of compliance requirements, providing supported Android solutions is onerous to both IT and the end users.
australis 12y ago
Single page link: http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/08/whats-the-best-device-for-interactive-learning/375567/?single_page=true http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/08/whats-t...
masterjack 12y ago
In terms of what has measurable effects in the classroom there is a very rigorous study by Hattie: "A synthesis of over 800 meta analyses relating to achievement" In it, things like computer assisted learning, simulation and games, testing etc have a very low effect. Primary is things like feedback and other things that come down to the teacher. A partial list is contained here: https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/proflearn/docs/pdf/qt_hattie.pdf https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/proflearn/docs/pdf/qt_hattie.pdf That said, a big theme for what works seems to be personalization, custom feedback, custom progress, and computers should be great for this. It'll still be hard to beat a great teacher: in grade 1 alone there are close to 20 different reading levels that each student needs to be supervised through on their own pace
ars 12y ago
I never understood why an iPad - why waste money for the apple name? Nexus 7 devices are much cheaper and equal or better.
kennethfriedman 12y ago
I think iPads could be great for K12 education, but only if they are used effectively. You can't just take the current curriculum and stuff it with technology hoping to make it better. You have to pair the content and methodology with the technology. It seems like they are just buying iPads/Chromebooks/Whatever, shoving them in classrooms, and hoping they make a difference. It might be more effective to start with iPads outside the classroom, not inside. Inside the classroom they have access to a teacher. No current or near-future technology is going to be able to replace the benefits of a teacher. But at home, many kids are stuck with boring paper homework assignments and static, old (sometimes 10+ yr) textbooks. If we replaced paper homework with interactive questions, and textbooks with engaging iBooks (or other iBooks like) textbook[1], that could make a real difference. Apple had created great interactive textbook creation software, and it seems great paired with iTunes U. However, there don't seem to be great books coming from it. Apple probably should have made many demos (instead of just 1) to give educators and the public an idea of the potential interactive homework and textbooks could have on student engagement.
- noazark 12y ago
  My high school was either the first or one of the first public schools with PDAs (Palm Pilots) over a decade ago and it ran into the same problem. Not only was their not curriculum for them, but my guess is that half of the teachers simply didn't use them in classes at all. I agree that the technology needs to trickle into the schools by way of the teachers (I think that's along the lines of what you were getting at) before anything new really gets adopted.
- kalleboo 12y ago
  > However, there don't seem to be great books coming from it. Apple probably should have made many demos (instead of just 1) to give educators and the public an idea of the potential interactive homework and textbooks could have on student engagement. They should have started a textbook publisher, incubated it for a year or two, and then spun it off (even letting it be purchased by an existing publisher if that made sense).
- greggman 12y ago
  K12? Maybe K-3. You're not allowed to program or share programs on iPads by Apple's rules so once any of your kids show an interest in programming or if you want to teach programming you'll have to get them something else.
rdtsc 12y ago
It is important to realize that Apple products are accessible luxury products. They are used just as much for their functionality as for status signals. Do you know a person who bought one and is using it for reading email? Yeah I know a bunch. The paradox in accessible luxury is that unlike other goods -- cars, homes, clothes. The wealthy don't necessarily get higher end devices. You'd have to be a multi-billionaire to have your own iPhone or iPad designed, built, tested. Otherwise chances are even if you are Warren Buffet the highest end smart phone you'll own will be an Apple one. And the paradoxical thing is that someone poor living on food stamps can also probably swing getting the same model with 2 year contract. So people will shell extra money to own one to show off status. (Not saying everyone does this, it is just some do). This then extends to school districts as well. At some point it doesn't matter about features or functionality someone "up there" with a check-book decided "we are getting the best technology out there for the money. Hey Joe what is the highest end coolest technology out there? Hmm well my kids all got iPads for Christmas... -- Ok we are getting iPads for everyone.".
- mercer 12y ago
  It's also partly convenience. iPads are seen as 'good' (whether justifiably so or not), and rather than pore over the specs and weigh the pros and cons, many will just get an Apple device and be done with it, if the budget allows for this. I actually switched to Apple a few years ago for precisely that reason. I used to have a desktop pc that I manually updated, but I found that it took too much time. I then switched to a Dell laptop that was pretty decent. But finding the right model took a while. When I finally got annoyed at reinstalling windows every year (or so) and when I needed a new laptop anyways, rather than doing all the research again, I just went for a MacBook. The convenience was a major factor in this decision, and after spending a week or two getting used to 'this weird operating system', I've been happy with Macs ever since, despite the fact that I might be able to get cheaper/better with a bit more work. I guess in a roundabout way status did play a role ('apple just works').
- smackfu 12y ago
  That is a bit silly. What better non-luxury tablet are you suggesting they buy instead, if the only point of Apple is accessible luxury?
JunkDNA 12y ago
I knew where this article was going before it even mentioned Chromebooks. It had the distinct smell of submarine: http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html
- Doctor_Fegg 12y ago
  Agreed. Google is very good at such pieces, and news sites surprisingly credulous at running them. Two that spring to mind: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/how-google-builds-its-maps-and-what-it-means-for-the-future-of-everything/261913/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/how-go... , http://www.wired.com/2014/07/how-googles-new-font-tries-to-anticipate-the-future/ http://www.wired.com/2014/07/how-googles-new-font-tries-to-a...
- jcromartie 12y ago
  And this is the author's first piece for the Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/meghan-e-murphy/ http://www.theatlantic.com/meghan-e-murphy/
  - Doctor_Fegg 12y ago
    "Meghan E. Murphy is an education journalist who formally wrote for Newsday." "Formally"? Ye gods.
lchengify 12y ago
While I was working in the Google Apps group a few years ago, we would bring in groups of teachers for focus groups and feedback on upcoming features for Apps. My biggest takeway from those meetings was that educators have a really hard job, much harder than even what educated people assume. On top of actually being a useful educational tool, there are a ton of other boxes to check in order to get any kind of technology into the classroom: * Compliance with the myriad of federal, state, and local laws surrounding education procurement, student data, what can and can't happen on government property and around children, and cash-strapped educational IT departments. * Able to be simple enough for any educator to use and maintain, but also have enough features to add value as a educational tool. * Bureaucracies and procurement policies that run the gamut: administrators, local government, state government, federal government, parents, the school board, the PTA, the teachers union, etc. * Extreme price sensitivity. * Long life: Even rich districts struggle to get budgets to upgrade technology regularly, and by regularly I mean every 2-4 years. * The mechanics of running a classroom filled with children ... who would often rather spend a class period figuring out how to bypass a firewall to get to facebook, rather than half a class period writing. Getting by all these requirements, and reaching educators at the end, requires a concerted, long running effort on the part of the company. We were lucky that Google had a running a edu program for Apps/Chrome and made it a priority. Consequently a lot of the core features of the offering are targeted specifically at educators: * Strong central administrative control. In order to use your chromebook at all, you really need to log into your web account. It's only able to install things locally (and bypass administrative restrictions) if you really work hard to get around it. This helps get the tools approved by IT departments and administrators. Compare this to the fleets of windows machines or ipads that lots of IT departments have to maintain, where they basically solve the problem by re-imaging the machine regularly to wipe out locally installed apps. * Price. Edu Google Apps accounts are essentially free. Compared to other computing solutions, Chromebooks are cheap and get the job done. * Tools that both educators and students can use. The biggest selling point on apps is actually calendar. Gmail is great but most schools already have a email system in place. A calendar that syncs, has proper access control, is central to your school, and free, saves educators a lot of hassle. Once a teacher is hooked on calendar as a "gateway drug", it's not hard to take the leap. Docs, gmail, chrome, and chromebooks all have the same login, contact list, and access control. Being able to use these tools makes it easier to pass this knowledge onto the student. * Maintenance: A student can work on one chromebook, drop it in water, and then immediately log onto another one and have all his work. Also for a educator in the classroom, it's easy to understand that refreshing the page will fix the problem 90% of the time. * Shared home / school: A student can log onto his apps account at home, and get all his state as if he were still at school. * Platform cross compatibility: Apps can work well on a Chromebook, but also will do a best-effort attempt on IE9 on windows. Apple's core philosophy has never tilted that way. This isn't just to adapt to varying levels of tech in classrooms, but also for taking the tools home. * And finally, lots of bells and whistles that often get overlooked: ADA compliance, language support, student data compliance, etc. All that being said, for young children, an iPad is an irreplaceable educational tool. I doubt any Google product has the kind of widespread appeal as iPads do among young children. Maybe YouTube, but even that is a stretch.
SystemOut 12y ago
iPads are really useful for kids in the K-3 or so age range, especially in the lower band. However, once the kids get to 4th and 5th grade they need to start writing more and that's where the full keyboard and ability to create content makes a Chromebook a better decision. My company works on products that help kids increase cognitive skills and overcome issues such as auditory processing disorders and with the younger kids the touch aspect of tablets has made them superior to laptops either with mice or touchpads because touch is just a simpler motor skill for these younger kids. As they get older however this advantage starts to disappear. Basically the trend I think that will play out is that you see a mix of devices with iPads predominantly at the lower grade bands and Chromebooks in the mid to upper grade bands. Chromebooks are nearly disposable at their price point, are incredibly easy to manage compared to Windows machines or iPads and do 95% or more of what kids need to use devices for at school.
f4stjack 12y ago
When the deal comes to educational practices, a device mostly created for the consumer (as in content consumer) practices does seem to fit the bill at first glance, doesn't so in the long run. I have used ipads, e-readers, laptops and desktop computers nearly all my life. I was one of the first students who were taking his notes with a palm tungsten e2 with a stowaway keyboard talking to it via IR. The problem here is as same as the palm's however. I HAD to buy an external keyboard to take notes or write stuff. Even though palm had ingeniously offered a "handwriting method" to take fast notes. But lecture notetaking is a different beast. "Students saw the iPad as a “fun” gaming environment, while the Chromebook was perceived as a place to “get to work.” And as much as students liked to annotate and read on the iPad, the Chromebook's keyboard was a greater perk — especially since the new Common Core online testing will require a keyboard" Actually, come to think of it, a dream machine invented for the educational purposes should have three things as essential: - a turnable (and good) cam to record the lecture with sound - a comfy keyboard - A 13' IPS screen. 13 inch is the maximal range. Although screen real estate is a brilliant thing, lugging it out in a huge backpack with charger apparatus does not make it worthwhile.
r3m6 12y ago
I fail to understand why any school would need iPads or similar devices. Use the classic blackboard and invest every $ in recruiting and training GOOD teachers. Yes, a computer room or some sets of LEGO mindstorms kits can make good sense. But iPads or Chromebooks for every kid? Come on...
valevk 12y ago
Why do schools have iPads, when they can't afford basic supplies: http://redditgifts.com/exchanges/redditgifts-teachers-2014/ http://redditgifts.com/exchanges/redditgifts-teachers-2014/ ?
- smackfu 12y ago
  Um, some schools have more money than others.
wallflower 12y ago
There is a saying in education that if something new comes in and threatens the education system - the system will co-opt and neutralize it so that it does not threaten the system. For example, when computers first started being used in classrooms, they were usually used by progressive teachers in a single classroom (they could usually only afford one). The school 'neutralized' it by moving them to a dedicated classroom and teaching the students secondary skills like typing, rather than using it to create with/explore with as part of the curriculum. This continues to present day - with app literacy (Powerpoint) substituted for typing (usually). iPads are an interesting case. They are not necessarily coming in from the grassroots (the teachers) but from the top-down. Teachers, in some cases, are the ones fighting the iPads. In fact, most of my educator friends, view the iPad 'magical device' moniker with disdain. It's not so much the walled garden as the hype. This co-opting is also happening with the Maker Movement in schools. As soon as the Maker Movement moves beyond the single classroom, questions start getting asked. Why do you need a dedicated space? What is this Maker thing? How does making things align to Common Core (no joke). One of the problems of using Khan Academy self-styled learning is that it is very hard to map Khan Academy lessons to traditional student learning objectives (as mapped out in 1.2.3.4 level detail by the school district or state). Without explicit mappings, it's a hard(er) sell.
- mjburgess 12y ago
  All (ideological) systems are self-preserving, if they weren't, they wouldn't be stable.
- allegory 12y ago
  Khan doesn't teach by rote. That's why it doesn't fit in the education system.
seba_dos1 12y ago
So the schools are discovering that iPads are a toys rather than work devices? What a surprise! Notice how all those teachers were "at first disappointed that they weren't getting an iPad". Really? If you choose the tool based only on its coolness factor, you'll hardly get the right one, especially for education.
pflanze 12y ago
Hm, nobody is mentioning the Raspberry Pi. Isn't this their target audience? Is it too slow, Raspbian not good enough for what they want to teach, or what's the reason? (I'm not a teacher nor have I tried to use a Pi (although I own one, haven't had the time to play with it yet); I'm just wondering.)
Kayou 12y ago
Maybe I got brainwashed by their video, but I indeed think that a laptop like the Dell Latitude 13 (http://youtu.be/rq5dqKWymP8 http://youtu.be/rq5dqKWymP8) is much better than a tablet. There is a keyboard, a network activity light on the back of the screen, removable battery, spill resistance, compatible with the Dell Mobile Computing Cart to store and charge them, the laptop can open flat and has a touchscreen so it can do all what a windows table can, 8H battery life, USB ports, they claim that it's sturdy. But most important, there is a keyboard! And with the new features of windows 8 where you can reset the computer with factory settings with or without keeping your data, that's good, but still not as good as not being able to have any software problem like on an iPad. I really like the network indicator on the back so that the student is immediately spotted when going online, nice idea.

167 points by jmduke 12y ago

55 trackers according to ghostery. What the hell is wrong with theatlantic.com?

Yeah I think a laptop is much more useful. I still don't have a tablet. The biggest use of a tablet I can see is watching videos.

WalterBright 12y ago
I use a tablet for reading books. They're much better than a laptop for that.
- allegory 12y ago
  I disagree. They're easier to annotate on a computer. Then again I still use hard copies when they're not extortionately priced and postits for markup.
  - WalterBright 12y ago
    Fair enough, though I pretty much never annotate books. Taking notes on a computer has never worked for me, either. I take notes on paper, then later scan them in. When I help someone with a math/electronics/physics problem, I also use a yellow pad & pen. I cannot see any advantage to using a computer. For writing significant text, though, it's a computer all the way.
    - allegory 12y ago
      I do the same actually. Can't beat a pencil and cheap HP AIO printer/scanner. I tend to annotate errors in books more than anything - it seems recently that publishers have lost the ability to review books...
  - mercer 12y ago
    I agree with the both of you! I prefer reading on my iPad, but I was often annoyed at how annotations were either stuck on the thing, or harder to make. GoodReader (iOS) is decent for making and syncing pdf annotations. It's still not as easy as a laptop, but sometimes the benefit of reading on an iPad is worth it for me. For epub files, however , I almost always exclusively use my iPad. There's an app called Marvin that allows you to instantly select (or select + highlight) a sentence, and grow the selection with one tap. I find that almost more convenient than my laptop. It also syncs with Calibre, although that can take a bit of work to set up properly.
gcp 12y ago
It's ok for reading websites on the couch. Less cumbersome than a laptop. Also for reading books. They're devices for consuming content, not creating it.

ekianjo 12y ago

Too bad the article does not really go in the insights as to why the IPads are being replaced by something else. It's just being hinted, but that's the main point they should have focused on the article.

blinkingled 12y ago
The article mentioned several reasons - price, ease of pushing apps, ease of using new one if current one breaks, keyboards, being perceived as more work device than the iPad (less distracting and general perception of the iPad as a gaming/entertainment device).
- ekianjo 12y ago
  Yeah, I know, but still I felt this was very light. I'd like to hear more about what kind of things they do differently with a Chromebook vs an iPad, how kids react to a more PC-like device vs a tablet (not just perception, but usage impressions and perceived benefits), how educators use both devices, etc... I was expecting a bit more.
  - blinkingled 12y ago
    Maybe for your use these are light reasons but for public schools these are pretty sound reasons. Cost, manageability and keyboards specifically are enough to make a decision.
mattmcknight 12y ago
It sounds like the key points are: -lack of keyboard -perceived as more of a game device than a work device -inferior cloud capabilities to a Chromebook (harder to issue replacement device) -harder to use with some educational web applications -cost I never really understood the "tablets for schools" thing. Laptops are better on a desk than on a lap, whereas you might prefer a tablet when you don't have a desk: on the bus, on the couch, in bed... Maybe we just need more laptops with touchscreens.
- 12y ago

sheetjs 12y ago

> since the new Common Core online testing will require a keyboard. Is common core testing available on paper, or is it only computerized?

aefeuer 12y ago
For the first 1-3 years, I believe, states/districts will have the option of paying extra for paper versions of the test. That's only a transitional option, though, and paper will be deprecated in favor of the online test. (One exception -- paper tests will be available indefinitely for students with special needs who can't take the test online.) One of the big problems with online tests that we're seeing in some of our school districts is that many students don't have great typing or computer skills. Even though most students can probably type well enough to complete the tests, the extra mental challenge of typing is likely to artificially lower scores. So a test that purports to measure math skills might actually be measuring a combination of math skills + computer skills, and a school that's worked really hard to teach math might get docked because students haven't had a lot of computer experience. This doesn't necessarily mean that online testing is a bad idea, but just one of the many things that we need to take into account.
- ericcumbee 12y ago
  I'm all for more computer based assessments. But the idea of taking a math test on a computer sounds horrible. I remember MyMathLab in college. you could have the right answer, but if you did not enter it in the precise way that it wanted, then it was wrong.
  - learc83 12y ago
    MyMathLab was horrible. I spent as much time getting used to the clunky interface, the first few weeks as, I did learning math.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - ivan_ah 12y ago

ksec 12y ago

Is Chromebook that much cheaper? Why is it hard to replace an iPad compared to Chromebook? To me, a lot of these issues have to do with software rather then hardware.

soperj 12y ago
It is that much cheaper. Because it's easier to get everything off an old chromebook and onto a newer one.
jay_kyburz 12y ago
Actualy. I think it is about the keyboard.
adventured 12y ago
The iPad Air 32gb is $599. The Acer C720 Chromebook, 32gb, 11.6" screen, is $229 (and very well reviewed on Amazon). Acer charges $50 to double your storage, Apple charges $100. The next generation of Chromebooks are likely to commonly be at or near 14" screens at $300 or under.
Mikeb85 12y ago
If you use Google Drive, you can have your whole life, all your files, pictures, etc.... accessible with a simple login across all your devices. Google's Cloud services are second to none, iCloud doesn't compare. Since Chromebooks encourage you to work entirely in the cloud, you can have access to all your school work by simply logging in to Drive...

cpncrunch 12y ago

Chromebooks are just much more useful than ipads in so many ways. I've recently finished getting our html5 web conferencing app working smoothly on chromebooks because pretty much all our educational customers are moving from laptops to chromebooks right now. I was skeptical about chromebooks, but having owned one myself for the past few months I can now see the benefits, and I would recommend them over Windows laptops to anyone who is not a developer. For all intents and purposes chromebooks are essentially virus-proof and screwup-proof. (I'm sure you could get a virus or screw it up, but you would have to try damn hard!)

lchengify 12y ago
Mind if I ask which model? I had a chromebook 3 years ago and found it too slow to do anything beyond basic usage, and especially not software development. I have however heard good things about the Pixel.
- allegory 12y ago
  This appears to be the older ARM ones. The newer Intel ones are pretty nippy even with the Celeron badge.
- cpncrunch 12y ago
  Mine is an Acer C720 (I got that because it's what most of the schools were using). It's fast enough for anything I've used it for (web browsing, web conferencing + ssh client). Takes literally 6 seconds to boot up (or 1 second to wake from sleep). It seems a lot less sluggish than my 2-year old MacBook Pro - I think the SSD helps a lot.
vacri 12y ago
As a gamer, I don't want to have to download gigabytes of stuff from the cloud every time I want to play a AAA title.
- Crito 12y ago
  You won't be playing AAA games on chromebooks anyway...

capkutay 12y ago

Apple probably knows and they probably don't think it's that significant for them. They didn't hire the CEO of Burberry and st Laurent to sell digital notebooks to grade schools

adamnemecek 12y ago
At the same time isn't that kind of how Apple created their customer base originally with Apple II? Then, once the kids grew up, they would still buy Apple products.
RowanH 12y ago
.. but you get young minds entrenched in your ecosystem and you've got a head start. Fast forward a number of years with all of your school work online, maybe a 'school' email account/drive and profile linked with your 'personal' gmail account and drive - it's seamless to transition between the two etc. Now company x comes along and wants you to move ecosystems, it's going to be a lot harder. I for one couldn't even contemplate changing from the gmail/drive ecosystem now. Get a new phone, put in your creds, boom - all there. The hardware is irrelevant at that point.
DigitalSea 12y ago
Apple is a marketing company at the end of the day. They got to where they are now through great marketing and great products. I don't doubt for one second targeting school students in their most influential years isn't on Apple's marketing priority list. People tend to stick with what they know and if they're using iPad's for the duration of their schooling years from primary to high school and then college, that's a long time to build a following and I would guess most people who grow up using Windows stick with Windows later on in life and those who use Apple products stick to using Apple in their later years in life.

jordanthoms 12y ago

My startup makes PDF annotation software for chrome & chromebooks ( http://www.notablepdf.com http://www.notablepdf.com ) and we've been getting a huge amount of interest from schools deploying large numbers of chromebooks. Dell even stopped selling their chromebook to individual purchasers since they are struggling to keep up with demand from the education sector [1] It's a very interesting space at the moment especially with Google Classroom on the way. [1] - http://www.pcworld.com/article/2453800/dell-halts-chromebook-online-sales-cites-rising-demand.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/2453800/dell-halts-chromebook...

bgroins 12y ago

I'm seeing this change in the workplace as well. I work in a large IT shop and have about 15-20 meetings a week with different departments. Until the past 6 months, everyone was sporting iPads with some sort of bluetooth keyboard case. Now it's ultrabooks or Airs. I used to carry a tablet/keyboard combo as well, but over time the ultrabook became more appealing because of several factors, namely, the keyboard, screen size, and Office suite. Battery life and portability are also now acceptable for all day mobile use on the ultrabook. I don't think there will ever be a tablet compelling enough to switch back. Even the Surface (to me) has too many compromises over a lightweight ultrabook with a usable keyboard.

swalsh 12y ago
Its because workplaces/schools are centered around producing, and tablets have a terrible user experience for producing. They're fine for consuming, but that's not what people do most of the time in offices/schools.

robotcookies 12y ago

You need a keyboard to do any serious writing. Students should write and they should never have gotten iPads in the first place. What are these teachers thinking?

youngtaff 12y ago
I wrote the first couple thousand words of a book on an iPad last summer and even using an external keyboard it as painful - you have to keep touching the screen to do things, which is a long stretch compared to using a trackpad or mouse
- coldpie 12y ago
  Which is why I laugh when people waste time or money on alternate input methods that involve more than wiggling my fingers very slightly. No one wants to use a Minority Report style interface for more than three seconds. There's a reason input methods (mouse and pushing discrete things on a flat surface) haven't really changed in nearly fifty years, even with the advent of computers-in-your-pocket.
blahedo 12y ago
A lot of people claim that the on-screen "keyboard" is a keyboard, so it's plausible that some people bought into that. Lack of keyboard is a non-starter for me for any serious device, but I lost count of the number of people that told me I would be able to touch-type on the iPad's "keyboard". (This should be obviously false, but in case it isn't, I'll point out that the apostrophe---which I've used five times so far in this post---isn't (6!) even on the main keyboard, and if you "touch-type" an apostrophe, you hit the enter key. Emergency backup keyboard maybe, but this is not usable as a touch-typing device.)
- manicdee 12y ago
  The apostrophe is inserted automatically by most spelling engines (even if they get it wrong some of the time). If not automatically added, you can put the apostrophes in pretty easily when you go back to review what you wrote (because you read what you wrote before you hit post, right?) A keyboard is an obstruction when you just want to read, paint, or do non-text-entry work (and even for some text-entry work like dictation). I found the best of both worlds was a Logitech "Ultrathin Bluetooth Keyboard": it attached to the iPad magnetically like a Smart Cover and provided a keyboard and stand when you needed it. Ultrabooks don't work so well in portrait orientation. It's hard to type on them when they're sideways. On the other hand, my iPad + bluetooth keyboard weighed more (and was thicker than) than my 11" MacBook Air. Ultrabooks are also harder to read on, since vertical space is at a premium. I prefer tall narrow pages, rather than short wide pages. The main orientation on an Ultrabook is "short, narrow" pages (a format that photographers love, but there's no talking sense to photographers and their fascination for "square" pictures).

bennettfeely 12y ago

My high school spent thousands of dollars on 30-40 iPads which we "used" primarily in Spanish class in my senior year. Overall an enormous waste of money and time not limited to problems connecting to the spotty Wi-Fi. Our teacher was not aware of any good apps that she could tie into lessons so the iPads were used primarily as a web browser for a crappy textbook website. Virtually nothing was accomplished for a semester with the iPads. The IT director at my school was right when he referred to the devices that were supposed to be a revolution in education as "toys".

tjl 12y ago
It sounds like your IT director didn't support the teachers use of the iPads well (or the WiFi for that matter). Reading Fraser Speirs' blog (http://www.speirs.org http://www.speirs.org) about how he did a 1:1 program for his school (he was the computer teacher and IT professional there), it's clear that you can't just hand the iPads out and that's it.
manicdee 12y ago
The IT director's prophecy is self-fulfilling. If you don't put some effort and funding into application selection, you're going to have teachers using the iPads and ChromeBooks to teach kids lessons from free & crappy web sites that have no idea how to present lessons in a clear, concise manner with correct spelling and grammar. If the person responsible for a particular technology isn't going to spend time supporting colleagues using that technology, they're basically abandoning the technology. There are a multitude of language training resources on the App Store alone. I'm sure that someone in the US education system has done a review of various course material available through the App Store and Apple University (plus all the online courses) and determined which ones are best in particular brackets of student age, course price, etc. That a teacher was resorting to crappy web sites rather than the best available resources indicates that there were problems outside the technology environment: I'm thinking either management support or financial.
smackfu 12y ago
If someone gives you a tool and no support on how to use it, do you blame the tool or the person who gave it to you?

Synergyse 12y ago

Our business is built around a Chrome Extension that provides interactive Google Apps Training. At Synergyse we have seen massive adoption of Chromebooks in the education market, which represents a majority of our valued clients. In fact we have grown the business to over 1 million subscribers in 1 year. https://medium.com/@majidmanzarpour/how-we-grew-our-b2b-startup-to-1-million-subscribers-in-1-year-f55b4b4cdcf6 https://medium.com/@majidmanzarpour/how-we-grew-our-b2b-star...

DigitalSea 12y ago

I have witnessed this taking place in the enterprise sector as well. Without naming names, I've seen one large company here in Australia in particular move away from using iPad's to laptops because iPad's are too limited in what you can do, they don't offer the freedom of choice when it comes to different software options and date very quickly. From a cost point-of-view, you can buy a decent laptop for the same price as an iPad which will last for years. I believe Apple's closed-source nature of pigeon-holing you into using applications only on their tightly controlled moderated app store is actually coming back to bite them. The fear of knowing eventually your iPad will no longer be able to use the latest and greatest version of iOS forcing you to buy a new iPad to install the latest applications developed for later iOS versions your iPad doesn't support meaning more money is also another factor that works against Apple. Don't get me wrong, the iPad is a pretty great device for simplistic Internet browsing, checking your email and updating your social media, but if you want to do anything serious with it, the iPad shows its shortcomings.

tsunamifury 12y ago
$399 laptops rarely last more than a year and are rarely robust enough for any type of work. I could make practically all the same criticisms about a $399 laptop as an iPad. That being said, I don't know who would replace an laptop with an iPad in any sort of robust, non-mobile workflow, so I'm inclined to call BS on your statement.
- rythie 12y ago
  Traditionally laptops have had far too many moving parts to be durable: - 1 or 2 fans - Keyboard - display hinge - Hard disk - CD Drive - often various flaps or expansion area Whilst laptops are improving in this area, iPad have not had any of those from the beginning - it clearly makes for much more durable device. Additonally almost all laptops are high maintenance software wise with the possible exception of chromebooks.
Spooky23 12y ago
I do enterprise architecture focused on client delivery for a living. The problem isn't the iPad, it's the enterprise. "iPad for all of the things" isn't a successful strategy. iPad isn't optimal any more than 4" thick corporate laptops were. IT is used to hammer/nail solutions, End User Computing groups in enterprises tend to be focused on routine. Hell, many still call themselves "the desktop team", although that era is fading into the sunset. Along with the desktop sunset is the "desktops for the drones, bricks for the mobile drones, thin laptops for the execs" model. An iPad is: - A companion device for executives or others who travel throughout the office all day. - A primary device for users whose computing needs are task oriented. The executive use case is web access, document access, IM/chat, email. Think big blackberry with document reading capability. Biggest "transformational" use cases that drive satisfaction are making things like approval processes easy. The typical corporate VP VPNs in after dinner to approve stupid things in some system or via email. iPad lets them do that during conference calls instead of playing brick-breaker on a BlackBerry. For task oriented workers, you can buy or write apps very easily that let folks get work done. Example: Salesmen & Auditors need to share/present information with clients. iPad with file sync tool makes that easy, with better customer engagement. Example: Field force needs to conduct inspections or complete checklists for reporting purposes. iPad makes it trivial to deliver forms, case notes, etc -- complete with geocoding and photo evidence. I've worked with industrial equipment vendors who deliver service documentation and procedures to customer engineers via iPad apps -- it avoids the need to deliver hundreds of pounds of binders via Fedex. Apple Marketing example for pilots: http://www.apple.com/ipad/business/profiles/united-airlines/ http://www.apple.com/ipad/business/profiles/united-airlines/ For both groups, the iPad offers a much better user experience vs. a corporate laptop. It just works. When they break, you overnight a new one to the employee, and MDM delivers replacement apps/data based on user ID automatically. All of the above is true for Android tablets as well in some cases. But in regulated industries where you have lots of compliance requirements, providing supported Android solutions is onerous to both IT and the end users.

australis 12y ago

Single page link: http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/08/whats-the-best-device-for-interactive-learning/375567/?single_page=true http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/08/whats-t...

masterjack 12y ago

In terms of what has measurable effects in the classroom there is a very rigorous study by Hattie: "A synthesis of over 800 meta analyses relating to achievement" In it, things like computer assisted learning, simulation and games, testing etc have a very low effect. Primary is things like feedback and other things that come down to the teacher. A partial list is contained here: https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/proflearn/docs/pdf/qt_hattie.pdf https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/proflearn/docs/pdf/qt_hattie.pdf That said, a big theme for what works seems to be personalization, custom feedback, custom progress, and computers should be great for this. It'll still be hard to beat a great teacher: in grade 1 alone there are close to 20 different reading levels that each student needs to be supervised through on their own pace

ars 12y ago

I never understood why an iPad - why waste money for the apple name? Nexus 7 devices are much cheaper and equal or better.

kennethfriedman 12y ago

I think iPads could be great for K12 education, but only if they are used effectively. You can't just take the current curriculum and stuff it with technology hoping to make it better. You have to pair the content and methodology with the technology. It seems like they are just buying iPads/Chromebooks/Whatever, shoving them in classrooms, and hoping they make a difference. It might be more effective to start with iPads outside the classroom, not inside. Inside the classroom they have access to a teacher. No current or near-future technology is going to be able to replace the benefits of a teacher. But at home, many kids are stuck with boring paper homework assignments and static, old (sometimes 10+ yr) textbooks. If we replaced paper homework with interactive questions, and textbooks with engaging iBooks (or other iBooks like) textbook[1], that could make a real difference. Apple had created great interactive textbook creation software, and it seems great paired with iTunes U. However, there don't seem to be great books coming from it. Apple probably should have made many demos (instead of just 1) to give educators and the public an idea of the potential interactive homework and textbooks could have on student engagement.

noazark 12y ago
My high school was either the first or one of the first public schools with PDAs (Palm Pilots) over a decade ago and it ran into the same problem. Not only was their not curriculum for them, but my guess is that half of the teachers simply didn't use them in classes at all. I agree that the technology needs to trickle into the schools by way of the teachers (I think that's along the lines of what you were getting at) before anything new really gets adopted.
kalleboo 12y ago
> However, there don't seem to be great books coming from it. Apple probably should have made many demos (instead of just 1) to give educators and the public an idea of the potential interactive homework and textbooks could have on student engagement. They should have started a textbook publisher, incubated it for a year or two, and then spun it off (even letting it be purchased by an existing publisher if that made sense).
greggman 12y ago
K12? Maybe K-3. You're not allowed to program or share programs on iPads by Apple's rules so once any of your kids show an interest in programming or if you want to teach programming you'll have to get them something else.

rdtsc 12y ago

It is important to realize that Apple products are accessible luxury products. They are used just as much for their functionality as for status signals. Do you know a person who bought one and is using it for reading email? Yeah I know a bunch. The paradox in accessible luxury is that unlike other goods -- cars, homes, clothes. The wealthy don't necessarily get higher end devices. You'd have to be a multi-billionaire to have your own iPhone or iPad designed, built, tested. Otherwise chances are even if you are Warren Buffet the highest end smart phone you'll own will be an Apple one. And the paradoxical thing is that someone poor living on food stamps can also probably swing getting the same model with 2 year contract. So people will shell extra money to own one to show off status. (Not saying everyone does this, it is just some do). This then extends to school districts as well. At some point it doesn't matter about features or functionality someone "up there" with a check-book decided "we are getting the best technology out there for the money. Hey Joe what is the highest end coolest technology out there? Hmm well my kids all got iPads for Christmas... -- Ok we are getting iPads for everyone.".

mercer 12y ago
It's also partly convenience. iPads are seen as 'good' (whether justifiably so or not), and rather than pore over the specs and weigh the pros and cons, many will just get an Apple device and be done with it, if the budget allows for this. I actually switched to Apple a few years ago for precisely that reason. I used to have a desktop pc that I manually updated, but I found that it took too much time. I then switched to a Dell laptop that was pretty decent. But finding the right model took a while. When I finally got annoyed at reinstalling windows every year (or so) and when I needed a new laptop anyways, rather than doing all the research again, I just went for a MacBook. The convenience was a major factor in this decision, and after spending a week or two getting used to 'this weird operating system', I've been happy with Macs ever since, despite the fact that I might be able to get cheaper/better with a bit more work. I guess in a roundabout way status did play a role ('apple just works').
smackfu 12y ago
That is a bit silly. What better non-luxury tablet are you suggesting they buy instead, if the only point of Apple is accessible luxury?

JunkDNA 12y ago

I knew where this article was going before it even mentioned Chromebooks. It had the distinct smell of submarine: http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

Doctor_Fegg 12y ago
Agreed. Google is very good at such pieces, and news sites surprisingly credulous at running them. Two that spring to mind: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/how-google-builds-its-maps-and-what-it-means-for-the-future-of-everything/261913/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/how-go... , http://www.wired.com/2014/07/how-googles-new-font-tries-to-anticipate-the-future/ http://www.wired.com/2014/07/how-googles-new-font-tries-to-a...
jcromartie 12y ago
And this is the author's first piece for the Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/meghan-e-murphy/ http://www.theatlantic.com/meghan-e-murphy/
- Doctor_Fegg 12y ago
  "Meghan E. Murphy is an education journalist who formally wrote for Newsday." "Formally"? Ye gods.

lchengify 12y ago

While I was working in the Google Apps group a few years ago, we would bring in groups of teachers for focus groups and feedback on upcoming features for Apps. My biggest takeway from those meetings was that educators have a really hard job, much harder than even what educated people assume. On top of actually being a useful educational tool, there are a ton of other boxes to check in order to get any kind of technology into the classroom: * Compliance with the myriad of federal, state, and local laws surrounding education procurement, student data, what can and can't happen on government property and around children, and cash-strapped educational IT departments. * Able to be simple enough for any educator to use and maintain, but also have enough features to add value as a educational tool. * Bureaucracies and procurement policies that run the gamut: administrators, local government, state government, federal government, parents, the school board, the PTA, the teachers union, etc. * Extreme price sensitivity. * Long life: Even rich districts struggle to get budgets to upgrade technology regularly, and by regularly I mean every 2-4 years. * The mechanics of running a classroom filled with children ... who would often rather spend a class period figuring out how to bypass a firewall to get to facebook, rather than half a class period writing. Getting by all these requirements, and reaching educators at the end, requires a concerted, long running effort on the part of the company. We were lucky that Google had a running a edu program for Apps/Chrome and made it a priority. Consequently a lot of the core features of the offering are targeted specifically at educators: * Strong central administrative control. In order to use your chromebook at all, you really need to log into your web account. It's only able to install things locally (and bypass administrative restrictions) if you really work hard to get around it. This helps get the tools approved by IT departments and administrators. Compare this to the fleets of windows machines or ipads that lots of IT departments have to maintain, where they basically solve the problem by re-imaging the machine regularly to wipe out locally installed apps. * Price. Edu Google Apps accounts are essentially free. Compared to other computing solutions, Chromebooks are cheap and get the job done. * Tools that both educators and students can use. The biggest selling point on apps is actually calendar. Gmail is great but most schools already have a email system in place. A calendar that syncs, has proper access control, is central to your school, and free, saves educators a lot of hassle. Once a teacher is hooked on calendar as a "gateway drug", it's not hard to take the leap. Docs, gmail, chrome, and chromebooks all have the same login, contact list, and access control. Being able to use these tools makes it easier to pass this knowledge onto the student. * Maintenance: A student can work on one chromebook, drop it in water, and then immediately log onto another one and have all his work. Also for a educator in the classroom, it's easy to understand that refreshing the page will fix the problem 90% of the time. * Shared home / school: A student can log onto his apps account at home, and get all his state as if he were still at school. * Platform cross compatibility: Apps can work well on a Chromebook, but also will do a best-effort attempt on IE9 on windows. Apple's core philosophy has never tilted that way. This isn't just to adapt to varying levels of tech in classrooms, but also for taking the tools home. * And finally, lots of bells and whistles that often get overlooked: ADA compliance, language support, student data compliance, etc. All that being said, for young children, an iPad is an irreplaceable educational tool. I doubt any Google product has the kind of widespread appeal as iPads do among young children. Maybe YouTube, but even that is a stretch.

SystemOut 12y ago

iPads are really useful for kids in the K-3 or so age range, especially in the lower band. However, once the kids get to 4th and 5th grade they need to start writing more and that's where the full keyboard and ability to create content makes a Chromebook a better decision. My company works on products that help kids increase cognitive skills and overcome issues such as auditory processing disorders and with the younger kids the touch aspect of tablets has made them superior to laptops either with mice or touchpads because touch is just a simpler motor skill for these younger kids. As they get older however this advantage starts to disappear. Basically the trend I think that will play out is that you see a mix of devices with iPads predominantly at the lower grade bands and Chromebooks in the mid to upper grade bands. Chromebooks are nearly disposable at their price point, are incredibly easy to manage compared to Windows machines or iPads and do 95% or more of what kids need to use devices for at school.

f4stjack 12y ago

When the deal comes to educational practices, a device mostly created for the consumer (as in content consumer) practices does seem to fit the bill at first glance, doesn't so in the long run. I have used ipads, e-readers, laptops and desktop computers nearly all my life. I was one of the first students who were taking his notes with a palm tungsten e2 with a stowaway keyboard talking to it via IR. The problem here is as same as the palm's however. I HAD to buy an external keyboard to take notes or write stuff. Even though palm had ingeniously offered a "handwriting method" to take fast notes. But lecture notetaking is a different beast. "Students saw the iPad as a “fun” gaming environment, while the Chromebook was perceived as a place to “get to work.” And as much as students liked to annotate and read on the iPad, the Chromebook's keyboard was a greater perk — especially since the new Common Core online testing will require a keyboard" Actually, come to think of it, a dream machine invented for the educational purposes should have three things as essential: - a turnable (and good) cam to record the lecture with sound - a comfy keyboard - A 13' IPS screen. 13 inch is the maximal range. Although screen real estate is a brilliant thing, lugging it out in a huge backpack with charger apparatus does not make it worthwhile.

r3m6 12y ago

I fail to understand why any school would need iPads or similar devices. Use the classic blackboard and invest every $ in recruiting and training GOOD teachers. Yes, a computer room or some sets of LEGO mindstorms kits can make good sense. But iPads or Chromebooks for every kid? Come on...

valevk 12y ago

Why do schools have iPads, when they can't afford basic supplies: http://redditgifts.com/exchanges/redditgifts-teachers-2014/ http://redditgifts.com/exchanges/redditgifts-teachers-2014/ ?

smackfu 12y ago
Um, some schools have more money than others.

wallflower 12y ago

There is a saying in education that if something new comes in and threatens the education system - the system will co-opt and neutralize it so that it does not threaten the system. For example, when computers first started being used in classrooms, they were usually used by progressive teachers in a single classroom (they could usually only afford one). The school 'neutralized' it by moving them to a dedicated classroom and teaching the students secondary skills like typing, rather than using it to create with/explore with as part of the curriculum. This continues to present day - with app literacy (Powerpoint) substituted for typing (usually). iPads are an interesting case. They are not necessarily coming in from the grassroots (the teachers) but from the top-down. Teachers, in some cases, are the ones fighting the iPads. In fact, most of my educator friends, view the iPad 'magical device' moniker with disdain. It's not so much the walled garden as the hype. This co-opting is also happening with the Maker Movement in schools. As soon as the Maker Movement moves beyond the single classroom, questions start getting asked. Why do you need a dedicated space? What is this Maker thing? How does making things align to Common Core (no joke). One of the problems of using Khan Academy self-styled learning is that it is very hard to map Khan Academy lessons to traditional student learning objectives (as mapped out in 1.2.3.4 level detail by the school district or state). Without explicit mappings, it's a hard(er) sell.

mjburgess 12y ago
All (ideological) systems are self-preserving, if they weren't, they wouldn't be stable.
allegory 12y ago
Khan doesn't teach by rote. That's why it doesn't fit in the education system.

seba_dos1 12y ago

So the schools are discovering that iPads are a toys rather than work devices? What a surprise! Notice how all those teachers were "at first disappointed that they weren't getting an iPad". Really? If you choose the tool based only on its coolness factor, you'll hardly get the right one, especially for education.

pflanze 12y ago

Hm, nobody is mentioning the Raspberry Pi. Isn't this their target audience? Is it too slow, Raspbian not good enough for what they want to teach, or what's the reason? (I'm not a teacher nor have I tried to use a Pi (although I own one, haven't had the time to play with it yet); I'm just wondering.)

Kayou 12y ago

Maybe I got brainwashed by their video, but I indeed think that a laptop like the Dell Latitude 13 (http://youtu.be/rq5dqKWymP8 http://youtu.be/rq5dqKWymP8) is much better than a tablet. There is a keyboard, a network activity light on the back of the screen, removable battery, spill resistance, compatible with the Dell Mobile Computing Cart to store and charge them, the laptop can open flat and has a touchscreen so it can do all what a windows table can, 8H battery life, USB ports, they claim that it's sturdy. But most important, there is a keyboard! And with the new features of windows 8 where you can reset the computer with factory settings with or without keeping your data, that's good, but still not as good as not being able to have any software problem like on an iPad. I really like the network indicator on the back so that the student is immediately spotted when going online, nice idea.